1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a water conditioning system and, more particularly, to a water softening system which is used to remove calcium and magnesium ions from water and replace these ions with sodium ions.
2. Description of Related Art
The quality of water for residential and commercial uses has been an issue of increasing concern to water consumers. More and more residential water users are installing water conditioning systems to remove unwanted elements from water. Commercial water users are similarly concerned with increased water purity. Calcium and magnesium ions occur naturally in water and can produce undesirable scale and deposits on equipment, machinery and utensils which come into contact with the water. In addition, these ions can give water an undesirable taste. One method for removing the calcium and magnesium ions is to force the water through a bed of cation resin wherein the magnesium and calcium ions in the water are attracted to the resin and exchanged for ions of sodium or potassium. The magnesium and calcium ions are attracted to the resin beads which are embedded with the sodium or potassium ions. Examples of water conditioning systems based upon ion exchange are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,014 issued Oct. 24, 1989 to Malson and U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,258 issued Apr. 28, 1987 to Phillips.
Known water softener designs force water through a main chamber containing several baffles, or force the water through a main housing having a plurality of subchambers with filtering material contained therein. Examples of known filter housings are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,369,915 issued Feb. 20, 1945 to Quinn; U.S. Pat. No. 1,432,351 issued Oct. 17, 1922 to McGahan; U.S. Pat. No. 613,048 issued Oct. 25, 1898 to Smith, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 606,592 issued Jun. 28, 1898 to Snell; U.S. Pat. No. 176,593 issued Apr. 25, 1876 to Burke; and U.S. Pat. No. 130,316 issued Aug. 6, 1872 to Robinson.
One problem which each of the known water conditioning systems suffer from is access to an easily assembled housing which can withstand the internal pressure from the water being forced therethrough and also be easily manufactured from substantially inert materials.